1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus which includes a support frame for supporting a plurality of photoconductors arranged in the apparatus, the support frame being allowed to be pulled out from a casing of the apparatus.
2. Description of Related Art
The so-called tandem type image forming apparatus typically includes a support frame for supporting a plurality of photoconductor drums arranged in a horizontal direction, wherein the support frame is allowed to be pulled out from a casing of the apparatus (e.g., through a front or side panel of the casing) so that each photoconductor drum can be easily installed into and removed from a main body of the apparatus. Such an image forming apparatus, for example, as disclosed in JP 2003-316233 A and JP 2003-287992 A (corresponding U.S. patent issues under U.S. Pat. No. 6,978,103 B2), has an intermediate transfer belt in contact with a top side of each photoconductor drum, and is thus configured such that when a support frame (a member for holding image-carrying members) is pulled out from a casing of the apparatus, it is pulled out straight in a horizontal direction after the intermediate transfer belt (a member for carrying a transfer agent) is moved away upwardly.
In this configuration where the support frame is pulled out straight in a horizontal direction, the support frame would possibly be shifted horizontally in position within the apparatus through an operation of the support frame pulled out from and pushed into the casing of the apparatus, whereby the photoconductor drums could disadvantageously be positioned inaccurately relative to the other components of the main body of the apparatus. The resulting inaccurate positioning of the photoconductor drums in the apparatus would cause unnecessarily greater forces to act on both of the photoconductor drums and the intermediate transfer belt at their contact surfaces, or make a gap therebetween, which would undesirably produce a problem transferring an image, resultantly lowering the quality of the image.
It would thus be desirable to provide an image forming apparatus, in which the photoconductor drums can be positioned accurately relative to other components of the main body of the apparatus while maintaining the ease of operation of the support frame being pulled out from and pushed into the casing of the apparatus. The present invention has been made in an attempt to eliminate the above disadvantages. Illustrative, non-limiting embodiments of the present invention overcome the above disadvantages and other disadvantages not described above. Also, the present invention is not required to overcome the disadvantages described above, and an illustrative, non-limiting embodiment of the present invention may not overcome any of the problems described above.